3 good reasons

Why science did well at this year's Chelsea Flower Show

Credit: M. WALTER/TROIKA

1 Gold-medal-winning garden '600 Days with Bradstone' (pictured) was designed as a relaxation area — for a lonely astronaut on Mars.

2 A garden created in tribute to Linnaeus on the 300th anniversary of the naturalist's birth also scooped a gold.

3 And another gold medal went to an exhibit of plants with eco-industrial uses, including marigolds for paint, hemp for textiles — and, bizarrely, a lavender-oil fountain.

Scorecard

Everest's telecoms

British mountaineer Rod Baber has made the first mobile telephone call from the world's highest peak.

US television

Bloggers have panned CBS's forthcoming sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The highly original premise features two stereotypical physicists fumbling to impress their sexy new neighbour.

Number Crunch

300 kilometres per hour is the top speed of Japan's new fleet of iconic bullet trains — the same top speed as the old ones.

19% is the energy saving promised by the new trains, which will run on far less electricity than their predecessors.

15 centimetres is the width of the arm-rests in first class, proving that going green doesn't always mean skimping on comfort.

Sources: Royal Horticultural Society, AFP, BBC, scienceblogs.com